The New Model Of Local Store Marketing

It’s hard for Big Boys to learn how to do things differently.

In some ways, I might even be a best-case scenario. Although, I am not sure I would call BrandVenture one of the Big Boys.

For a long time, I was one of those focus group addicts. Recruitment had to be just so…the facility had to be just so.

No question about it, those market research professors had drilled the proper way of doing statistical research in my headset.

But after doing nearly 300 of them across the globe in just one year, it dawned on me that maybe there was a better forum and a better way to get people talking.

Long story short … I found a different, less expensive, more effective way to get people sharing their deepest thoughts and perceptions. That’s what we call Coffee House and Pub Chats.

Trust me. Whether it is caffeine or a good cold brewsky, it gets folks chatting!

The showcase brand in this Blog-logue is Macy’s,

Macy’s is featured in the current issue of Business Week.

To survive in the current economic times Macy’s consolidated its seven regional offices for its 811 stores in one location. Along the way, it cut 5,600 jobs that altogether has saved the company $500 million in the last two years.

Sounds on paper that the mass market department store just became more centralized and Big Boy to me.

But…as the article quotes Macy’s CEO, Terry Lundgren as saying… “We can’t wait around for the environment to improve…you have to do something different.”

(Wonder if Terry carries a MacBook Pro?)

As the articles goes on…

“For Lundgren, this means catering to the local tastes of shoppers…with a new initiative called My Macy’s.”

“How?”

“He’s stocking extra swimsuits in stores near water parks and more size 11 shoes in Chicago.”

So this Big Boy is learning how to say good-bye to the mass market, mass delivered department model and hello to what I will call the old school way retail used to work.

Will be interesting to see if Macy’s can extend “catering to local tastes” beyond the operational inventory and stocking mix to actually localize all touch-points of the brand experience to the local audience groups.

Perhaps you have to get more grass-roots than Big Boy corporate management to fully heed the calling.

This morning I attended a breakfast meeting of several QSR franchise owners. The topic of discussion was social media and how it can work on the Local Store Marketing level.

I give these guys (and gal) a bunch of credit. While only one of the guys regularly hit Facebook, nearly all saw social media as a great chance to build better customer service and better customer relationships.

The guy that serves as the facilitator of the group…also a franchise owner…talked about how his trade areas varied by store and how social media can be customized based on which market groups each store services.

Now how cool is that?

(And how cool are these Franchise owners?!!!)

The title of the section where the article is running in Business Week is called “Managing Forward.”

No question that forward thinking is our calling.

But it is interesting just how much of the forward thinking comes back to the past fundamentals of true personalized (versus mass) marketing!